The Serpent's Shadow (15 page)

“She dared not teach you the magics of your own people, although you begged to learn, for she could not have concealed your half-awakened power once it began to shine. She knew that you must come to learn one day, but she hoped that if you were to learn the magics of your father's people, her sister would not recognize that the magics were wielded by the hand of one of her own blood.” Here Gupta smirked. “And when the Sahib Witherspoon went about with the doctor his daughter, even if Shivani did hear of such a thing, her eyes were so blinded by hatred that she never would have thought the daughter to be other than wholly English, for she never would credit a sahib with bringing a half-blood daughter into the sun, and never, never, would she credit him with giving her education and a high rank within the sahibs' world.”

“So—that was why we were safe for so long.” Maya spoke slowly, her heart contracting with grief at her mother's long sacrifice. “Because she never went out if her sister would have heard of it, and her magic made it seem that we—just weren't there. I always knew we had an enemy, one who had great power—but I never knew it was one of her own blood.”

Gupta's eyes clouded briefly. “Alas, that her magics were not enough to keep the wings of the plague-goddess from overshadowing her.”

Maya's throat tightened, and she groped for her handkerchief, but her hand never reached it, for her heart froze within her at Gupta's next words.

“I have never been certain that was mere mischance,” he said, with a hint of a growl of anger in his throat. “Kali Durga governs disease as well as the thugee. And the snake in the sahib's boot was no accident at all.”

Of course, it couldn't have been,
she thought, as Sia and Singhe flowed forward to twine around her ankles, as if seeking comfort and reassurance. She reached down to stroke them. “No. You're right, Gupta. No ordinary snake would have gotten past these little warriors. Never, ever, would they have let a serpent get so far as the bungalow door.”

Sia whined in her throat; Maya cupped her hand comfortingly around the mongoose's cheek. “I have known for a very long time that we had an enemy with magic power, my oldest friend. I even guessed that this enemy caused my father's death. That was why I fled from home, and took you with me, for since you were willing to come,
I
would not leave you behind to face the wrath of one who had been thwarted. But I did not know that my enemy had so ... familiar a face.” She shivered. “Why, Gupta? My mother and father are dead. What possible quarrel can she have with me?”

“That you live is quarrel enough, to her and those who serve her,” Gupta replied sourly. “And her anger and hatred would only be the greater, that Surya deceived her for so long. Your mother—and you—are everything she is not,
have
everything she has not. You earn respect; she has only fear. She is comely, but her bitter heart casts a blight over her beauty and her face—when last I set eyes on it—had the same icy beauty as a diamond. A man may admire a diamond, but he will not love it. And you have love. I do not think she is even liked by those she serves and those who serve her. Envy eats at her, waking and sleeping. Of this, I am certain.” He pursed his lips. “And there is another thing,” he added reluctantly. “It is only a thing that I have heard, once or twice, as a rumor. But it is said that if one who devotes her magic to the dark slays another mage, she will have that mage's power to add to her own. For that reason alone, she is likely to harm you.”

Maya digested Gupta's words, feeling cold and very much alone. “And what have you seen and what have you heard, that you bring me these words now?” she asked him, at last.

His face took on the aspect of someone who is haunted, but is reluctant to speak of his fear. At last, he cleared his throat. “I have heard, when I have been abroad at night, the call that the thugee use, one to another. It was not near
here,”
he added hastily, “but they are within the city.”

She didn't ask him how he knew what such a call sounded like. It was easy enough to guess that it would be the call of some night-walking bird or animal of India, and it was unlikely that anyone would be prowling the streets of London making such a sound, unless he was
from
her homeland, and he and those with him had a reason to keep their movements a secret.

“And you have seen?” she prompted.

“I have seen—in the bazaar where I go to buy our foodstuffs from home—the shadow of a serpent on a wall, where no serpent was, or should be.” Fear stood unveiled in his eyes. “It was said that Shivani danced with the
rakshasha.
I believe the tale. The temple to which she took herself was not of good repute.”

“That would,” Maya murmured, half to herself, “explain the
krait.”

Gupta nodded. The cobra was holy; given the number of prayers that went up daily in praise of Sahib Witherspoon and in gratitude for what he did among the sick, it would have been unlikely for the sorceress to dare to attempt to use the cobra as her unholy weapon. The krait, however, was another story entirely.

And if she had anything to do with the serpent demons, the rakshasha, any serpent she sent might not even be an ordinary snake. Maya looked into Gupta's eyes, and saw not only fear there, but trust and confidence. It was that which made her shake off the paralysis of her own sudden fears.

“You will no longer go to the bazaar, old friend,” she said decisively. “You may be recognized; certainly you will be followed.”

Gupta nodded, reluctantly. “My son—” he began.

She interrupted. “Nor will you send any of this household. I fear
anyone
from the homeland will be followed, to see where he goes. If my magics are succeeding, they will have no other way to find us but by looking for those from home. The longer we can elude them the better.” She pondered her options. “The boy Jack, the eldest son of the woman who sews and mends for us to pay for her sick baby's care? He runs errands; he is quick to learn, and clever. You will show him what it is you need at the market, and send him for it. We can afford to pay him for such a service.”

Gupta's face darkened. “But he will be cheated,” he protested, unwilling to allow a mere English boy to venture into the treacherous waters of commerce with a fellow countryman of India.

Maya laughed, perhaps with a touch of hysteria, but Gupta's thriftiness was so ingrained that even in the shadow of terrible danger, he worried about being cheated! The absurdity of it countered some of her own fear. “I think not,” she said, shaking her head. “I have seen this boy bargain like the sharpest old woman; it is more likely that he will leave the merchants feeling they have been bested! No, you tell him what is a fair price for a thing, and he will get that price, or better.”

Gupta relaxed. “Then there is no need for any of this household to leave, except for the children to go to school.”

“The children wear English clothing at school; they look no different than any other children,” Maya pointed out. “There are the Vellechio boys, the Italians, who are darker than they. I do not think that the thugee will haunt every day school in the city on the chance that they
might
see a child of the homeland. So long as we hide among the English, it will be harder for them to find us.”

“Except that you, who tend the sick at the Fleet—” again Gupta's face darkened.

“I will walk veiled by day, or take the omnibus as near as I may, and Tom brings me home by night,” she said firmly. “There are none among the sick that I tend that would betray me, even should the thugee have the English to ask them.”

Gupta sighed. “That is true. And there are many among your sick who will protect you, walking where I may not—and a thousand eyes and ears, should you ask for them.”

She laughed at his exaggeration. “Not a thousand, Gupta, but enough. Especially among the children.”

“And who looks at a child? Yet a child sees everything.” Now Gupta smiled, at last. “I did well to confess to you, mem sahib. You, too, are a warrior, with a warrior's heart. You find weapons to your hand when you need them.”

“And I will not scruple to use any and all of them,” she replied firmly. “You may be sure that I will begin tonight, and go on tomorrow, sending the warning out amongst my ‘eyes and ears.'”

Gupta bowed his head to her, an act of respect that touched her profoundly. “Then I will leave you to your work, mem sahib,” he said, rising. “Shall I have my son bring food to you here, or in your office?”

“My office, please,” she replied, though she made no move to rise as he left. She looked around at her circle of pets; all of them watched her closely. They acted as if they had been listening to the entire conversation, and anxiously awaited her reaction.

Pets. I'm not so sure now, that “pets” are all they are,
she thought, noting the look of their eyes, the expressive postures of their bodies. The owl, Nisha, sat side by side with the falcon, their bodies so close that their wings touched. They seldom perched that closely together, but tonight it appeared, to her at least, as if they were telling her that they, too, were warriors in her service, and would stand sentry by night and day. The mongooses sat alertly on either side of her feet, and when she glanced down at them, they looked up. Their faces were easier to read; she had seen that look on them before. The hunt was up, and they would not let another enemy slip past them, having unaccountably failed once before. The neck hackles of Rajah the peacock bristled aggressively; she had seen
him
kill serpents in India, and his own talons could be formidable; she had the sense that he was not the decorative creature he had feigned to be.

Rhadi's eyes flashed; he flew to her shoulder as Charan leaped into her lap. “Love you!” the parrot exclaimed, as a declaration, and not an endearment. Then, astonishingly, “Wateh for you! Fight for you! All! All! Shivani
bad!
We guard!”

Charan balled his little fists and nodded emphatically, even as Maya's mouth dropped open in shock. Reflexively, she looked at the others. As she met the eyes of each in turn, each one nodded, slowly and deliberately.

These-are not pets.
Even as she thought that, she wondered just what they were. Or perhaps, what Surya had made them....

They all clustered closely around until they touched her, the owl and the falcon swooping down to land on the arms of her chair, the peacock nestling in against her right leg, the mongooses jumping up into the chair to share her lap with Charan. Then Charan reached up, touched her cheek with his little black “hand” and turned her face so that she looked into his eyes.

And all that she could see were his eyes. She felt as if she were falling into them, but how could she be afraid? She had known him from her birth; he had shared her cradle, her playtime, her very food. He was her friend and companion. They trusted each other with a surety past words.

We are
—
briefly
—
more than we seem, little healer.

The words flowed into her mind. For this moment, astonishment, fear, any other thought or emotion that might interfere with this communication was held at bay, so that she could hear what they needed to say to her. A strength so great that it could easily crush her if it cared to cradled her instead, and dropped its words gently into her open heart.

This is not our land, and you are only half our child, but you are in our charge,
the words went on.
We will fight for you and stand guard over you.
Charan's face took on a solemnity and wisdom mingled with a hint of great mischief; Nisha's feathers were as white as snow. Rajah spread his fan for her, the parrot's eyes flashed, and the two mongooses sat erect, small but proud warriors, their large eyes bright with intelligence
. But you, too, may come to a place where you must take up arms, and you
must
find an ally of the power of this place, or nothing we can do will help you prevail
She
has grown stronger with every passing day, and grows stronger still. There is much evil in this city, and darkness feeds upon and strengthens darkness. Child, your foe will not rest until she drinks you dry and casts away the husk. She lusts for what you hold,

and will
pursue you
no matter where
you go to
have it. Your magic cannot hide you forever, and when it fails, you must be ready.

Charan dropped his hand from her cheek; suddenly she was herself again. She put her hand to her throat, feeling as if her collar choked her, cold with fear that bound her with rings of iron.

A touch from Charan's cheek on hers freed her from that terrible fear so quickly it
had
to have magic behind it. Her mind swirled with speculations, but one settled out and quickly became a certainty.

The many gods of India wore many faces and many guises, and not all of them were human.

Rhadi laughed, with a note in the laughter of triumph, and Charan nodded again. She all but collapsed against the back of her chair and stared at them.

“I need—a little time to absorb this,” she said weakly.

“Yes,” Rhadi said, and flew back up onto one of his perches, followed by the owl and the falcon. A little dazed, Maya was not so bedazzled that she did not notice that Nisha's feathers, which had been white, were slowly darkening to their usual brown and golden hues.
A white owl, a falcon, a peacock
... She tried to think; Charan surely was the voice of Hanuman—goodness, he was a
Hanuman langur,
how could she not have suspected? The others—

As often as Rhadi says “I love you,” perhaps he does speak in the voice of Kama. Goodness—Kama, the god of all love
—
doesn't he even have a parrot as his chosen mount? A
white
owl
—
that would be Laksmi; she's Vishnu's consort, and as fierce in fighting evil as he is. And when Rajah touched me, my fear was simply gone; the god Skanda slays terror, and I
know
he is represented by the fearless peacock....